Godly Compassion and My Flooded Facebook Feed

Okay, look, I’m about sick of my news feed on Facebook being flooded by Gay Marriage/Straight Marriage stuff. Sick to death. I did chose to read a blog post that a friend linked to, “An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation.” It was well written, but as with arguments on both sides of the issue, it set my teeth on edge. Now I’m ready to weigh in on the situation. First, doesn’t the Bible tell us not to judge? Is it for us to decide that just because someone’s lifestyle differs from ours, and what we believe to be right, that they don’t have a relationship with God. That’s NOT MY JOB!!! Every one’s relationship with God is their own personal business. Not mine. If consenting adults are involved, no one is being hurt, not being abused, I don’t have a right to judge. I may or may not agree with their choices, but I’m going to love you, because Christ compels us to love one another! Secondly, do you really, REALLY want the government involved in what happens in the privacy of your bedroom? In the privacy of your love relationship? I sure don’t. I want the government to mind their own business and leave my partner (in my case, my husband) and I alone.

I have friends and family members who are gay. I don’t love them any less. Heck, maybe I have more concern for them because I know that taking the non-traditional route may be making their lives more complicated. Whether I approve of their life choices doesn’t matter one bit, because I love them, and know they love me. I have zero problem with my kids being around them, well, maybe the one who has a potty mouth. It’s bad enough Mom & Dad have a hard time with keeping their language clean, so if a friend, no matter their sexual orientation, religion, political views, race, class or creed can’t keep from dropping the F-bomb in every sentence, then we limit the interaction. Do I think that they will try to recruit my kids, or influence them? No. Well, on the influence thing, no more so than the “straights” in their lives. We are all influenced to some degree by the people in our lives, even us grown-ups. I actually know some people who would be shocked and mortified that I allowed my daughter to sleep in the same room with her gay cousin and the cousin’s partner. Oh, for Pete’s sake! Get over yourself. Trust isn’t based on sexuality. Third, I don’t feel that gay marriage threatens my “traditional marriage,” at all. I also feel the use of the word “traditional” is a joke. If people want to use the Bible to smack folks upside the head about marriage, let’s re-evaluate how many, many men in the Bible had multiple wives, and concubines. You can’t get any more “traditional” in the truest sense of the word, for a couple thousand years, many, many cultures practiced plural marriage. Am I trying to make a case for plural marriage? No, but to me it points to a MAJOR flaw in the argument for “traditional” marriage. Maybe the way I’m thinking about it is over simplified, but I think it’s become ridiculous. I spend the first few minutes, every time I look at Facebook hiding every post about this topic. It’s TOO MUCH! However, the one thing I’ve seen in all of this on Facebook that I agree with, is someone commenting on how wrong it is to be using the symbol of the Cross as a protest against anyone. We should not try to crush each other, with the biggest symbol of HOPE for the world. I immediately hide those, they are so insulting to me, as a follower of Christ. Do “Christians” really believe that our Jesus doesn’t care about gay people? Are they less than us “straights” in the eyes of God? Um, NO! My Bible, my religion, and my faith tells me that if only one human in the history of the world had needed Christ to die for their sins, He would have come and done the same for just one person, as He did for the whole entire world. I think we all need to search our heart a little harder, and think a little longer about what we are saying, and what message we are sending. We are not to cause another to stumble, we are not to be the cause of discouragement. So maybe, what we all need to do, Christians, “Christians,” and non-believers alike, is show a little more compassion.